Post on 02-Feb-2021
Project Code: DTP2-012-1.2 Document type: Output 3.4
Project start date: 01/07/2018 Project end date: 30/06/2021
DanubeChance 2.0 Embracing failure to facilitate second-chance entrepreneurship in the Danube
region
Output 3.4 Meet the survivors B2B Mentoring workshop
Due date of deliverable: 10/2019 Actual submission date: 10/2019
Document Control Sheet
Work package Number WP3
Work package Title Landscape screening
Activity Number O.T. 3.4
Activity Title Meet the survivors B2B Mentoring workshop
Deliverable Number O.T.3.4
Deliverable Title Meet the survivors B2B Mentoring workshop
Dissemination level Public
Main author Wolfgang Haider, Barbara Glinsner, Andrea Mayr,
Wolfgang Michalek, all ZSI,
Contributors Good Practices collected by IFKA, SEZ/S2i, UTC-N,
PTP, UKS, CFE, CCIS, RARS, ODIMM, IMPEER NASU,ZSI
Quality Assurance IFKA
Versioning and Contribution History
Versio
n Date
Author/Editor
/Reviewer
Contributor
s
Description/Comment
s
_v01 30.03.2019
Wolfgang
Haider, Barbara
Glinsner,
Andrea Mayr,
Wolfgang
Michalek
ZSI, IFKA,
SEZ/S2i,
UTC-N, PTP,
UKS, CFE,
CCIS, RARS,
ODIMM,
IMPEER NASU
Draft Report
_v02 30.10.2019
Wolfgang
Haider, Barbara
Glinsner,
Andrea Mayr,
Wolfgang
Michalek,
ZSI, IFKA,
SEZ/S2i,
UTC-N, PTP,
UKS, CFE,
CCIS, RARS,
ODIMM,
IMPEER NASU
Final report
_final 19.12.2019
Wolfgang
Haider, Barbara
Glinsner,
Andrea Mayr,
Wolfgang
Michale
IFKA Final revision after
Second Progress
report
Document last saved on 19.12.2019
DanubeChance2.0
Content
1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 4
2. Outline of a concept for ‘B2B mentoring workshops’ .................................................................... 4
3. Draft Agenda ................................................................................................................................... 7
4. Reporting Template ......................................................................................................................... 8
5. Thematic Café ................................................................................................................................. 9
DanubeChance2.0
1. Introduction The first step in the Danube Chance 2.0 project was to map and screen current policies within the Danube
region´s policy landscape regarding second-chance entrepreneurship and preventive re-structuring
policies for financially distressed organisations to identify policy niches. In the course of Activity 3.1
of the project several activities were implemented that contributed to the elaboration of a solid
knowledge base on second-chance entrepreneurship in the Danube region.
In the second semester of the Danube Chance 2.0 project Activity 3.3 kicks off, introducing various
formats for exchange of experiences and interregional learning activities. The activity focuses on
promoting dialogue, common understanding and highly practical policymaking experiences on second-
chance entrepreneurship in the Danube region. To achieve these goals, different workshop formats will
be implemented such as pitching repair sessions (all partners), B2B mentoring workshops (all partners)
and train the trainer events (only IFKA, ZSI and UKSK). For each of these formats ZSI will provide the
project partners with guidelines for organising the events.
While a separate concept note is provided for the events, it is possible to combine the workshops, e.g.
hold the pitching repair session and the B2B mentoring workshop on one day. However, it is important
that these two events are treated separately in reporting, this means two attendance sheets have to be
signed by the participants for each of the events and two separate reporting’s have to be delivered to
ZSI.
The prevalent concept note deals with the organisation of B2B (Business to Business) mentoring
workshops which are to be organised by all project partners that have budget allocated to do so. These
workshops have the aim to invite successful second-chance entrepreneurs and failed non-restarters to
exchange experience and to demonstrate existing second-chance entrepreneurial stories.
Thus the organisation of ‘B2B mentoring workshop’ is a crucial step of the experience exchange and
learning part of the overall project. This workshop aims at highlighting outstanding stories of successful
re-entrepreneurs and sharing experiences on necessary skills to overcoming threatening situations and/or
re-starting businesses.
2. Outline of a concept for ‘B2B mentoring workshops’ These events should be organised following the provided methodology. Slight variations according to
local needs are possible but should not change the general scope of the workshop.
Overall framework • ‚B2B mentoring workshops‘ are to be organised in all partner countries with budget allocated
• The budget per session is 1.000 EUR (including fees for external speakers, room rental,
catering)
• Time Schedule: March/April 2019
• Duration: 3-4 hours
• Target groups: successful (second-chance)entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs in crises, failed
entrepreneurs, recently started entrepreneurs, business support organisations, investors, policy
makers, business accelerators
• Number of Participants: 10-15 (mostly entrepreneurs but also business support organisations,
policy makers, investors)
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Each project partner, involved in this activity is responsible to identify and invite the participants,
introduce Danube Chance 2.0 project and to moderate the debates (if necessary). Especially, project
partners have to identify 3 or 4 successful (re-)entrepreneurs or representatives from business support
organisations that are willing to share their story on how they overcome financial struggles, how they
managed a successful re-start of their businesses or what can be learnt from other failed business. The
budget for the workshop includes speaker fees. If you contract external speakers, which are paid for
sharing their story at the events, they have to be officially invited by the organising project partner (email
saved) and asked to provide their CV or Biography proving that they have a significant knowledge base
and previous experience, which is highly valuable for the project partners and target groups of the
project.
Goals
The goal of the ‘B2B mentoring workshop’ is to foster the exchange of experiences and knowledge
between successful re-entrepreneurs and financially distressed, recently started, bankrupt or failed
entrepreneurs, policymakers, financial intermediaries and investors as well as business accelerators in
order to build up the positive culture of second chance entrepreneurship and re-boost the market re-entry
of non-fraudulent entrepreneurs through professional support and mentoring.
Therefore an interactive workshop design is suggested that invites these stakeholder groups to listen to
success stories and to familiarise themselves with key challenges and lessons learnt form successful
entrepreneurs and from the experience of business support organisations.
Structure and content of the workshop
To foster interactive engagement at the workshop, we suggest using a workshop format following the
‘Thematic Café’ approach. This means that the workshop is more or less structured into three parts (see
also Figure 1):
First, the 3-4 successful entrepreneurs present their success story in the form of an ‘Elevator Pitch‘. This
means each of them gets three minutes to present the most important moments of their entrepreneurial
success story and how they overcame the biggest obstacles and challenges. Optionally, one of the
presenters can be from a business support organisation, describing his/her experience with struggling
entrepreneurs and existing support and revitalisation options.
Second, each of the presenters gets his/her own table and the other participants of the workshop branch
out according to their interests (between 4-6 participants at each table). At the tables the discussion is
free, oriented according to the needs and interests of the participants. One discussion round is 20 minutes
long, after 20 minutes participants change the table, the table hosts (presenters) stay at the table. Patterns
observers (project partner) roam around the room and take notes on the various tables in order to detect
patterns that are similar on the different tables. In total, four sessions will be held in order to give every
participant the chance to talk to all of the entrepreneurs. In general, the following questions should be
taken into account at the tables:
- What were the main obstacles in the course of the entrepreneurial activity?
- What were the main challenges?
- What are the most important lessons learnt?
- What is relevant/comparable to my own situation?
- What can be learnt from these experiences?
- What are available support structures and what kind of support would have been needed?
Third, after the thematic café sessions the Thematic Café Facilitator will transition the group discussion
in to the plenary and encourage exchange on lessons learnt from the thematic sessions. As a first step,
pattern observers present the trends they have observed and use post-it’s to cluster (e.g. on flip charts)
the most important lessons learnt. Starting from there, participants can add their perspectives and raise
further open questions that can be discussed together. Pictures of these clusters should be included in
the report and can also be shared with the participants after the event.
To wrap the event up, a flashlight round allows every participant to give feedback on the workshop
format and to share their most important lessons learnt (max 2 minutes each participant).
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Figure 1: Outline of the B2B mentoring workshop
Tasks and Roles in the Thematic Café
Thematic Café Facilitator guides the whole group, explains the workshop methodology and goals of
the workshops and moderates the plenary discussion (project partner).
Presenters (=table hosts) share their story in the first presentation session and host different thematic
tables. They are the key to facilitate a fruitful discussion on the tables and they provide their knowledge
and experience to stimulate discussion and exchange of experiences. (external experts)
General Participants (entrepreneurs, business support organisations etc.) hold conversations at different
tables for each round through random diversification. The invitation is to address in their group the
topics raised by the respective table hosts (e.g. specific challenges, experiences) and to increase their
knowledge through mutual learning alongside these presented cases. Participants should write down
most important lessons learnt on post-its and can also discuss own experiences in that regard. (external)
While participants move around the room between the rounds, table hosts remain at the same table
throughout the session, welcome participants, let them know what happened at the table prior to their
arrival, and then help the group with following the established guidelines.
Pattern Observers roam around the room and listen in on various tables, quietly and without disturbing
the participants, take notes, and try to get a feel for the pattern of the conversation pieces they heard.
When participants are changing the tables they arrange and cluster their notes (made on post-its) on flip
charts in front of the room. At the end of the group sessions and to spark the plenary discussions they
present the patterns they have observed and clustered. The coffee break after the fourth table session can
be used to produce a clustering on flip charts. Participants then can further elaborate on these
observations or show agreement or disagreement. (project partner)
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3. Draft Agenda Below you can find a tentative schedule of how the process at the workshop could look like. This
schedule is only a recommendation and can be adapted to local needs.
Time Activity
09:00-09:15 Arrival and welcome coffee
09:15-09:30 Introduction of the Danube Chance 2.0 project and workshop methodology and objective
09:30-09:45 Elevator Pitches (each successful entrepreneurs gets three minutes for his/her story)
09:50-10:10 First Thematic Café session
10:10-10:30 Second Thematic Café session
10:30-10:15 Coffee Break
10:30-10:50 Third Thematic Café session
10:50-11:10 Fourth Thematic Café session
11:10-11:20 Coffee Break
11:30-12:15 Plenary discussion (Open questions and flashlight round)
12:15-12:30 Wrap up and lessons learnt
13:30-14:30 Optional: Networking lunch
Figure 2: Tentative schedule for the pitching repair sessions.
Alternative Option I: Combination with Pitching repair session
If projects partners see the need for it, it is possible to hold the pitching repair session and the B2B
mentoring workshop on the same day as a 1 day workshop. However, the target groups and participants
are slightly different, so probably not everybody taking part in the pitching repair session will be
interested in the B2B monitoring workshop, so be aware on how you select your participants if you
decide to make a one day workshop out of it. Furthermore the two events have to be treated separately
in terms of reporting, which means having two signed attendance sheets and reports. If you decide to
hold both events on one day, it is recommended to organise the pitching repair session in the morning.
Time Activity
09:00-09:15 Arrival and welcome coffee
09:15-09:30 Introduction of the Danube Chance 2.0 project and workshop methodology and objective
09:30-09:45 First pitching session (5 minute pitches per entrepreneur)
09:45-10:45 Discussion & Evaluation on the tables
10:45-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-11:15 Repair Session – Entrepreneurs adapt their pitches collaboratively on the tables
11:15-11:45 Second pitching session (5 minute pitches per entrepreneur)
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11:45-12:45 Plenary Feedback & Evaluation round
12:45-13:45 Networking lunch
13:45-14:00 Introduction of newly arrived participants and Thematic Café format
14:00-14:15 Elevator Pitches (each presenter gets three minutes for his/her story)
14:15-14.35 First Thematic Café session
14:35-14:45 Second Thematic Café session
14.45-15:05 Third Thematic Café session
15.05-15:30 Coffee Break
15:30-15:50 Fourth Thematic Café session
15:50-16:30 Plenary discussion (Open questions and flashlight round)
16:30-17:00 Wrap up and lessons learnt
Figure 3: Combination of pitching repair session and B2B mentoring workshop.-
Alternative Option II: Combination with Business Breakfast
Another option is to combine the B2B mentoring workshop with the organisation of the Business
Breakfast that has to be organised in semester 2 (see guidelines by Steinbeis). In this case, the Business
Breakfast and the B2B mentoring workshop should be organised before the pitching repair session in
order to motivate entrepreneurs to prepare a pitch presentation and receive feedback from professional
mentors.
Time Activity
09:00-09:15 Arrival and welcome coffee
09:15-11:30 Business Breakfast (Methodology provided by WP4 leader Steinbeis)
11:30-12:45 Networking lunch and Arrival of B2B metoring participants
12:45-13:00 Introduction of newly arrived participants and Thematic Café format
13:00-13:15 Elevator Pitches (each presenter gets three minutes for his/her story)
13:15-13.35 First Thematic Café session
13:35-13:45 Second Thematic Café session
13.45-14:05 Third Thematic Café session
14.05-14:30 Coffee Break
14:30-14:50 Fourth Thematic Café session
14:50-15:30 Plenary discussion (Open questions and flashlight round)
15:30-16:00 Wrap up and lessons learnt
Figure 4: Combination of Business Breakfast and B2B mentoring workshop.
4. Reporting Template
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In order to get a coherent picture of the outcomes and main lessons learnt from the pitching repair
sessions, the partner institutions organising the sessions are asked to document the workshop and report
back the main insights following the template below. If you contract an external expert(s) for your event,
it is important that you include the CVs of the experts in the reporting that shows their qualification as
well as a documentation of their contributions at the workplace (presentations and/or pictures). While
the workshop generally can be held in national language, the reporting needs to be done in English.
1. Technical Information
Key information about the event:
- Date and Place
- Host institution
- Participants list
- Types of stakeholders reached (and numbers)
- Pictures of the event (in Annex)
Extent: 2-3 sentences (or table format)
2. Summary of the event
General remarks about the event:
- How did the methodology work?
- What worked well and what did not?
- How can pitching repair sessions be improved in the future?
Extent: ~1 page;
3. Key outcomes from the mentoring workshop
Contents of the discussions e.g.:
- Main statements and summary of opinions stated in plenary discussion
- Most frequent mistakes made by the pitching entrepreneurs
- Most frequent recommendations regarding pitching repair
- General observations about the outcomes of the event
Extent: ~1 page;
+ Annex 1 (original list of participants with signatures)
+Annex 2: CV of experts and their presentations and photos pdf – please also include presentations in national languages (no need to translate them)
The pitching repair event reports should be short and concise, focusing on the most important issues that
came up during the event and delivering some feedback on the methodology. The whole report should
not be longer than 2-3 pages.
5. Thematic Café
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Some more information on the Thematic Café – a variation of the World Café - format, following the
methodology elaborated from the World Café Community1:
1) Setting: Create a “special” environment, most often modelled after a café, i.e. small round tables covered with a checkered or white linen tablecloth, butcher block paper, coloured pens, a vase of flowers, and optional “talking stick” item. There should be four chairs at each table (optimally) – and no more than six.
2) Welcome and Introduction: The host begins with a warm welcome and an introduction to the Thematic Café process, setting the context, sharing the Cafe Etiquette, and putting participants at ease.
3) Small Group Rounds: The process begins with the first of four twenty minute rounds of conversation for the small group seated around a table. At the end of the twenty minutes, each member of the group moves to a different new table.
4) Harvest (Plenary Discussion): After the small groups (and/or in between rounds, as needed), the pattern observes present the main trends and lessons learnt across the tables. Participants are invited to add further trends or pose additional questions to the observed trends. These results are reflected visually in a variety of ways, most often using graphic recording (e.g. post its clustered on a flip chart) in the front of the room.
1 See: http://www.theworldcafe.com/key-concepts-resources/world-cafe-method/
http://www.theworldcafe.com/key-concepts-resources/graphic-recording/
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